Raceways are used to route cables or other wires or instrumentation lines along surfaces such as walls, floors, ceilings, or on other fixed structures. Raceways provide a convenient way to eliminate the dangers associated with exposed lines and manage instrumentation lines while keeping the lines contained and often out of sight.
Many current raceway designs are made of multiple components, including straight channel sections connected by couplings. These components are connected together using a variety of methods including, for example, nuts and bolts and/or adhesives. While such methods may serve their intended purpose to connect the components of the raceway together, they often increase the cost, labor, and time of installing or removing raceway systems. This is because installation, removal, and repair of such systems often require the employment of tools such as wrenches or materials such as adhesive. This added burden may be excessive, particularly in large scale applications such as, for example, raceways for carrying instrumentation lines or cables at an oil refinery. In such applications, raceways may be difficult to access, and any down time of instrumentation while a raceway is being repaired may be extremely costly.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for further improvements.